Brownfield sites as building blocks for sustainable urban environments: a view on international experience in redeveloping former military sites

This paper picks the argument and rationale of military base redevelopment as one example of brownfield land regeneration, and adopts a comparative analysis using examples from the United Kingdom, Germany and Jordan to highlight experiences, lessons, and map out the potential for further study. Around the world, projects for redeveloping former military bases include new housing developments, shopping centres and universities alongside recreational facilities and museums. In addition to promoting government targets for brownfield housing development, the need to reduce Ministry of Defence spending has been the driving force in redeveloping military land in the UK. The case of Vauban (Germany) on the other hand clearly demonstrates how community involvement can play a central role in redeveloping a former military base. In the Jordanian case, the examination of available sources indicates that although development on military sites has been promoted by a political commitment to ‘sustainable’ urban regeneration, economic self-interest appears to triumph over environmental and community concerns in the conversion process. This has generally been developer driven. The paper goes on to argue that the challenge in military base conversion and redevelopment, like other brownfield sites, will be to guarantee competitive advantages through revenue-generating activities that can transform these sites into reliable and sustainable economic opportunities while looking after the interests of all the parties concerned.